<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <title>Why Reactos? - ReactOS Website</title>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
  <meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache" />
  <meta name="Content-language" content="en" />
  <meta name="Publisher" content="ReactOS Web Team" />
  <meta name="Copyright" content="ReactOS Foundation" />
  <meta name="Generator" content="RosCMS" />
  <meta name="Keywords" content="ReactOS, ros, operating system, OS, OSS, compatible, react os, clone, free, open source, alternative, open source os, GNU GPL, GPL, LGPL, forum, download, information, wiki, support database, support, faq, compatibility database, compatibility" />
  <meta name="Description" content="ReactOS&reg; is a free, modern operating system based on the design of Windows&reg; XP/2003. Written completely from scratch, it aims to follow the Windows&reg; architecture designed by Microsoft&reg; from the hardware level right through to the application level." />
  <meta name="Page-topic" content="operating system, computer, software, downloads, open source, alternative" />
  <meta name="Audience" content="all" />
  <meta name="Page-type" content="Operating System/Information/News/Open Source" />
  <meta name="Robots" content="index,follow" />
  <link rel="SHORTCUT ICON" href="../allnew/favicon.ico" />
  <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 2.0" href="newsfeed_rss.xml" />
  <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom 1.0" href="newsfeed_atom.xml" />
  <link href="../css/style.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" />
  <!--[if IE]><link href="../css/ie.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><![!endif] -->

  <link rel="stylesheet" href="../css/litebox.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />
  <script type="text/javascript" src="../js/litebox.js"></script>

  
</head>
<body onload="initLightbox()">
<div id="main">
<div id="header">
  <div id="headercontent">
    <a href="index.html" id="back" class="clearfix">
      <img id="logo" src="../img/logo.png" alt="ReactOS logo" />
      <img id="reactos" src="../img/ReactOS.png" alt="ReactOS" />
    </a>
    <div id="headerContext">
      <div id="lang">
        <span>English</span>
<ul>
<li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=bg">Bulgarian</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=ca">Català</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=cz">Czech</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=da">Danish</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=de">Deutsch</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=el">Ελληνικά</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=en">English</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=es">Español</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=fr">Français</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=he">Hebrew</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=hu">Hungarian</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=id">Indonesian</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=it">Italiano</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=ja">日本語</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=ko">Korean</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=lt">Lithuanian</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=nl">Dutch</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=no">Norsk</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=pl">Polski</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=pt">Português</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=ro">Romanian</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=ru">Русский</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=sk">Slovak</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=sv">Swedish</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=tw">Chinese (traditional)</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=uk">Ukrainian</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=vi">Vietnamese</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=zh">中文</a></li></ul>
      </div>
      <div id="advertise">
        <a href="newbies.html">New to ReactOS?</a>
        <a href="[#dev_start]">Get involved!</a>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>
<div id="Navigation">
  <div id="NavigationContent">
  <ul>
    <li>
      <a href="about.html">Info</a>
      <ul>
        <li><a href="news.html">News</a></li>
        <li><a href="about.html">About&nbsp;ReactOS</a></li>
        <li><a href="about_whyreactos.html">Why&nbsp;ReactOS</a></li>
        <li><a href="download.html">Download</a></li>
        <li><a href="about_userfaq.html">FAQ</a></li>
        <li><a href="sitemap.html">Sitemap</a></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
      <a href="community.html">Community</a>
      <ul>
        <li><a href="news.html">Forum</a></li>
        <li><a href="[#cont_url_forum]">Wiki</a></li>
        <li><a href="community_mailinglists.html">Mailing&nbsp;List</a></li>
        <li><a href="community_irc.html">Chat</a></li>
        <li><a href="[#cont_url_peoplemap]">Peoplemap</a></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
      <a href="dev.html">Development</a>
      <ul>
        <li><a href="dev_start.html">How&nbsp;to&nbsp;take&nbsp;part</a></li>
        <li><a href="[#cont_url_wiki]Testing_Introduction">Testing</a></li>
        <li><a href="[#cont_url_wiki]Building_ReactOS">Compile&nbsp;ReactOS</a></li>
        <li><a href="[#cont_url_wiki]Debugging">Debugging</a></li>
        <li><a href="[#cont_url_doxygen]">Doxygen</a></li>
        <li><a href="dev_faq.html">Developer&nbsp;FAQ</a></li>
        <li><a href="dev_svn.html">Sourcecode&nbsp;access</a></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li id="contactus"><a href="contact.html">Contact Us</a></li>

    <li id="search">
      <form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/search">
        <fieldset>
        <label for="q" accesskey="s"></label>
        <input type="text" id="q" name="q" tabindex="0" size="13" maxlength="80" title="search" />
        <input type="hidden" name="sitesearch" value="http://www.reactos.org" />
        </fieldset>
      </form>
    </li>
  </ul>
  </div>
</div>
<table style="border:0" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
  <tr valign="top">
  <td style="width:147px" id="leftNav"> 
  <div class="navTitle">Navigation</div>
    <ol>
      <li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li>
      <li><a href="about.html">Info</a></li>
      <li><a href="community.html">Community</a></li>
      <li><a href="dev.html">Development</a></li>
      <li><a href="../roscms/?page=user">myReactOS</a></li>
    </ol>
  <p></p>


<div class="navTitle">About ReactOS</div>
      <ol>
        <li><a href="about.html">Overview</a></li>
        <li><a href="about_whatisreactos.html">What is ReactOS?</a></li>
        <li><a href="about_whyreactos.html">Why ReactOS?</a></li>
        <li><a href="download.html">Download</a></li>
        <li><a href="about_roadmap.html">Roadmap</a></li>
        <li><a href="about_userfaq.html">FAQ</a></li>
        <li><a href="media.html">Media</a></li>
        <li><a href="about_history.html">History</a></li>
        <li><a href="about_press.html">Press</a></li>
        <li><a href="license.html">License</a></li>
        <li><a href="dev_whitepaper.html">White Paper</a></li>
        <li><a href="dev_legalreview.html">Legal Review</a></li>
        <li><a href="/wiki/index.php/People_of_ReactOS">ReactOS Team</a></li>
        <li><a href="about_homepage.html">ReactOS Website</a></li>
      </ol>
      <p></p>

      <div id="ajaxsearchbar2" class="navTitle" style="display: none">Search</div>
      <ol>
        <li> 
			<div id="ajaxsearchbar" align="center"  style="display: none">
				<div align="center">
				<form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/search" style="padding:0;margin:0">
					<label for="q" accesskey="s"></label><input name="q" type="text" id="q" class="searchInput" tabindex="0" onkeyup="loadItemList(this.value,'rosweb','roscms_en','ajaxloadbar','sresultbar')" size="13" maxlength="80" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small; font-style: normal;" /><input name="domains" value="http://www.reactos.org" type="hidden" /><input name="sitesearch" value="http://www.reactos.org" type="hidden" />
					<input name="btnG" value="Go" type="submit" class="button" />
				</form>
				</div>
				<div id="sresultbar" style="display: none" align="left"></div>
				
			<img id="ajaxloadbar" src="../support/images/ajax_loading.gif" style="display: none"></div>
		</li>
      </ol>
	  <p></p>
 <div id="googlesearchbar" class="navTitle">Search</div>   
 <div id="googlesearchbar2" class="navBox"><form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/search" style="padding:0;margin:0">
  <div style="text-align:center;">
   <input name="q" value=""  size="12" maxlength="80" class="searchInput" type="text" tabindex="0"  /><input name="domains" value="http://www.reactos.org" type="hidden" /><input name="sitesearch" value="http://www.reactos.org" type="hidden" />
   <input name="btnG" value="Go" type="submit" class="button" />

  </div></form>
 </div>
<p></p>
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
<!--
	document.getElementById('ajaxsearchbar').style.display = "block";
	document.getElementById('ajaxsearchbar2').style.display = "block";
	document.getElementById('googlesearchbar').style.display = "none";
	document.getElementById('googlesearchbar2').style.display = "none";
-->
</script>
<div class="navTitle">Language</div>  
	<div class="navBox"> 
		<span>English</span>
<ul>
<li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=bg">Bulgarian</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=ca">Català</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=cz">Czech</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=da">Danish</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=de">Deutsch</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=el">Ελληνικά</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=en">English</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=es">Español</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=fr">Français</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=he">Hebrew</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=hu">Hungarian</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=id">Indonesian</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=it">Italiano</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=ja">日本語</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=ko">Korean</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=lt">Lithuanian</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=nl">Dutch</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=no">Norsk</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=pl">Polski</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=pt">Português</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=ro">Romanian</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=ru">Русский</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=sk">Slovak</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=sv">Swedish</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=tw">Chinese (traditional)</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=uk">Ukrainian</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=vi">Vietnamese</a></li><li><a href="../?page=about_whyreactos&amp;lang=zh">中文</a></li></ul>
	</div>
<p></p>
<!-- Google AdSense - start -->
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-8424466656027272";
google_ad_width = 120;
google_ad_height = 600;
google_ad_format = "120x600_as";
google_ad_type = "text";
google_ad_channel ="4696317145";
google_color_border = "5984C3";
google_color_bg = "EEEEEE";
google_color_link = "000000";
google_color_text = "000000";
google_color_url = "006090";
google_ui_features = "rc:0";
//--></script>
<script type="text/javascript"
  src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<!-- Google AdSense - end -->

      </td>

    <td id="content"><div class="contentSmall">	

<h1><a href="index.html">Home</a> &gt; <a href="about.html">About ReactOS</a> &gt; Why Reactos?</h1>
<h2>Why Reactos?</h2>
<p>
A lot of people in popular discussion forums keep asking &ldquo;why should I use ReactOS&rdquo; or &ldquo;why would someone need ReactOS&rdquo; or &ldquo;why not help develop Wine instead?&rdquo; or &ldquo;why not use Linux with Wine?&rdquo;.
</p>
<p>
We have an answer for all these questions, but it&#39;s not some simple magic word. Let&#39;s name a few key issues here:
</p>
<ul>
	<li>
	<p>
	There are plenty of *nix operating systems out there, this is very good. However they have different targeting (they perfectly fit server market, but desktop still isn&#39;t conquered, and several factors work against most Windows alternatives out today).
	</p>
	</li>
	<li>
	<p>
	There is currently no operating system which implements the kernel architecture design of MS Windows NT family (GNU/Linux is the best for comparison here: Linux was started as &ldquo;clone&rdquo; of Minix and Unix (eventually going on to be a Unix replacement), and ReactOS was started as &ldquo;clone&rdquo; of Windows NT).
	</p>
	</li>
	<li>
	<p>
	Linux+Wine is never going to be a <strong>complete</strong> replacement for a full Windows system. It&#39;s not only because Linux (despite there are some really user-friendly Linux distros out there), and not only because many users might find a transition to Linux/BSD difficult, but it&#39;s due to design and implementation decisions of Linux and Wine architectures, which prevent 100% compatibility.
	</p>
	</li>
	<li>
	<p>
	Even though Linux supports many types of hardware, Windows is still the dominant platform for device manufactorers. There are attempts to overcome this situation (like NDIS Wrapper for NT network card drivers, there are rumours about supporting NT video drivers, Captive NTFS for NT filesystem support), but ReactOS solves them from the first day by its design &ndash; be compatible with existing drivers and existing applications.
	</p>
	</li>
	<li>
	<p>
	There are many people who do not like how *nix systems behave or dislikes the conventions used. For them, Linux, BSD, and Mac OS X are not options, even before application compatibility and hardware support come into play. An operating system should give the consumers what they want instead of demanding the consumer conform.  Even with WINE, you are still running an operating system that behaves quite differently from Windows, at a user and system level.
	</p>
	</li>
	<li>Backwards compatibility. This is something vital for many people and companies, but the development philosophy of Linux and the GNU project do not consider it a priority. The Windows family has always went out of its way to ensure a stable API and backwards compatibility. By its design, ReactOS will also follow the philosophy of backwards compatibility with existing and future applications designed for the Windows NT family.  </li>
	<li>
	<p>
	There are no plans for Windows to become released under a GPL-compatible license (at least, ReactOS team is not aware of them).
	</p>
	</li>
</ul>
<p>
Finally, ReactOS offers a third alternative, for people who are fed up with Microsoft&#39;s policies but do not want to give up the familiar environment, architectural design, and millions of existing software applications and thousands of hardware drivers.
</p>



</div>
</body>
</html><!-- Generated with RosCMS 4 (4.0.0 beta) - 2009-11-06 12:36:14 -->